Religion
In reply to the discussion: There is a lot of talk in this forum about god [View all]napoleon_in_rags
(3,991 posts)Look at it this way: Once the billiard balls are moving on the table, what determines their final position?
1) The laws of physics, unfolding rationally.
2) A mind of billiard balls.
Now, once a storm is blowing, what determines the final state or path of the storm?
1) The laws of physics, playing out on each raindrop, air and water atom and cloud
2) The mind of the storm
Now, inside your brain, the states of which determine your physical actions, what determines what it will do?
1) The laws of physics, as playing out on each atom that makes up each neuron, following the same rules as the storm and everything else
2) The mind of you.
If you believe that the laws of physics unfold rationally for each atom, acting out a course defined by physics, than there is no room whatsoever for your own mind to have any effect on anything. You are as inanimate as the pool table or storm. Because if you had choice, that would violate the laws of physics, making some atom act in a way it would not otherwise act.
However, if you can see a way that unfolding laws of nature parallel this very real entity called your own mind, than you can imagine how the unfolding laws of nature outside your head parallel the will of another very real, but larger sort of mind.